321 Mountain in Berthoud is now the home of City Star Brewing! For many, 321 Mountain will always be known as "where Dean's Furniture used to be". Dean's Furniture was a great place- my mom used to go there all the time to get us stuff for the house; but it closed down a few years ago.

John Way and Whitney Taylor, along with Whitney's parents (who now own the building) spent a year remodeling 321 Mountain. One half of the new place will be where Rudi and Dan Taylor will sell imports; the other half- City Star Brewing!

Northern Colorado has many microbreweries- upwards of 150. City Star Brewing is something new- a NANO-brewery. A microbrewery is generally recognized as any brewery that makes 15,000 barrels of beer (645,000 gallons) or fewer annually, so let's consider 'nano' brewing to be much much smaller.

From City Star Brewing's fact sheet:

Head brewer John Way produces about 100 gallons per batch of hand crafted, fresh beer on the 3.5 barrel brew system.

I honestly do not know what the heck "3.5 barrel brew system" means. But then, you don't have to understanding something to enjoy it!

What I DO understand is how they came up with name City Star Brewing: 321 Mountain, long ago, was the home of the City Star Barn livery stable.

As you enter City Star Brewing, you do get a 'rustic' feel: There's lots of wood, lots of openness, and great old-time-feel fixtures.

Townsquare Media/Dave Jensen

On the speakers, City Star Brewing gets you into an 'old-western' feel with songs by Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels Band and The Soggy Bottom Boys. Very cool.

Also to get you into the old-west feel, is the name of the brewery's first six offerings:

I didn't sample ALL SIX of the beers that day, but I did try a couple:

Cowboy's Double Golden, named after one of their friends' golden retriever 'Cowboy', was City Star Brewing's very first beer. It's a great blonde ale.

Red Necktar. I didn't get it until I got home: "Redneck"-tar! This is probably the best American Red Ale I have ever had. Great hoppy-ness, with a sweetness to it. Awesome!